Case Study 5 - St. John’s RC Academy Roll 1100 Pupils – All-through
Executive Summary - download the full report St John's full report St John’s Academy is a 3-18, all through RC School with capacity for a nursery of 100 pupils (50/50), 400 primary pupils and 600 in the secondary. The school is at the centre of the North Inch Community Campus with state of the art community facilities for Arts, Sports and Leisure serving the area of North Perth, in particular Muirton Park, North Muirton and Fairfield. This is an area under major re-generation to address the multiple social and economic deprivation challenges. An ongoing concern for the school is the poverty of ambition which is a feature for many families. As a denominational school our catchment is far reaching, taking pupils from all areas in Perth City and rural Perth and Kinross. St John’s Academy is also a ‘Sports Comprehensive’ in partnership with our neighbouring secondary school, Perth Grammar Currently we have just over 20% of our pupil population who require EAL support, mainly for Polish. 30% of our children enrolled for Primary 1 intake for session 2011-2012 are Polish. According to the Scottish Standard Index of Multiple Deprivation, 8% of our families are listed in the lowest decile, 16% in the bottom 2 deciles and our average FME for our all through school is 14%. These figures represent the highest deprivation statistics of all PKC schools. Principles The main aspects of this initiative have been:
Piloting cross sector management and leadership structures
Developments – Nursery/Primary Nursery/primary developments are centred on:
Joint planning with nursery and primary staff at early level
Primary staff developing planning formats for learning, teaching and assessment
Pilot of NAR materials
Development of Profiling and Portfolio pro forma
Developments – Junior Phase Junior Phase developments have included:
Incorporation of B tC3, BtC4 and BtC5 key points into school Improvement plan
Key focus within Inset time, collegiate time and department time on learning and teaching issues
Focus on techniques such as Co-operative Learning and revisiting of Assessment is for Learning strategies
Development of Learning Rounds
Development of Interdisciplinary learning moving to a more systematic approach to integrated learning across areas of the curriculum throughout the junior phase
Specific development of IDL through Sports Comprehensive Programme
Development of integrated social subjects
Development of support structures
Mapping of Experiences and Outcomes across the curricular areas
Developments – Senior Phase Senior Phase developments have included:
Incorporation of B tC3, BtC4 and BtC5 key points into school Improvement plan
Models for Senior Phase proposed and discussed.
Discussion re number of courses studied (5-7)
Timetabling models devised up to 2015-16
Development of partnership with Perth City Schools, Perth College, Business Partners, local Community Learning & Development, North Inch Community Campus Partners including Live Active Leisure to develop skills for life, work and learning
Learning and Teaching The Learning and Teaching development has included:
Major focus on Co-Operative Learning and Assessment is for Learning to improve learning and teaching
Learning Rounds as a model for capacity building
Interdisciplinary Learning Development of IDL has included:
Gathering evidence from planning of the extensive opportunities being developed for IDL
Dedicated time allocated on Inset days and collegiate time for planning IDL across PE, HE, DET, Science, Social Subjects, Mod. Langs., English, Maths
Sports Comprehensive initiative has provided a vehicle to develop IDL in PE, HE, Science and DET
Development of transition programme focussed on values, leadership and skills
Focus on literacy across learning across LMG and secondary school
Support for Pupils and Their Learning Significant time and resources have been applied to the development of Support for Pupils and Their Learning, including:
Discussion on Inset, SLT meetings, extended leadership team meetings, whole staff meetings to agree support model for 2011-12 and beyond
Phased approach – 15 minutes per day in 2011-12
30 minutes per day 2012 and beyond
Vertical “house” groups established
Year 1 – focus on profiling, building a portfolio, study support
In house training for staff May/June 2011
Assessment, Reporting and Profiling Work here has included:
Piloting “profiles/portfolio” from Nursery, Primary and Secondary
Piloting of NAR materials across Primary and Secondary
Focus on Assessment, Reporting and moderation in LMG and Secondary
CPD
All priorities on SIP 2011-12–15 inform the focus for Inset time and collegiate time
Presentations, papers, discussions, feedback all available for staff on GLOW and school server
Use of ongoing evidence from self-evaluation to identify future priorities
Development of faculty approach for leadership and management
Engagement/Consultation with the School Community Included:
Series of presentations to parents/parent council
Involvement of pupils in piloting resources/materials/portfolios
Consultation/feedback from pupil voice/evaluations across the school
Appendices
All Appendices are contained within the full report.
St John’s Academy is a 3-18, all through RC School with capacity for a nursery of 100 pupils (50/50), 400 primary pupils and 600 in the secondary. The school is at the centre of the North Inch Community Campus with state of the art community facilities for Arts, Sports and Leisure serving the area of North Perth, in particular Muirton Park, North Muirton and Fairfield.
This is an area under major re-generation to address the multiple social and economic deprivation challenges. An ongoing concern for the school is the poverty of ambition which is a feature for many families.
As a denominational school our catchment is far reaching, taking pupils from all areas in Perth City and rural Perth and Kinross. St John’s Academy is also a ‘Sports Comprehensive’ in partnership with our neighbouring secondary school, Perth Grammar
Currently we have just over 20% of our pupil population who require EAL support, mainly for Polish. 30% of our children enrolled for Primary 1 intake for session 2011-2012 are Polish. According to the Scottish Standard Index of Multiple Deprivation, 8% of our families are listed in the lowest decile, 16% in the bottom 2 deciles and our average FME for our all through school is 14%. These figures represent the highest deprivation statistics of all PKC schools.
Principles
The main aspects of this initiative have been:
- Focus for School Improvement Plan 2010-15
- Learning & Teaching
- Curriculum
- Self Evaluation, Quality Assurance, Quality Improvement
- Focus on inset and collegiate time
- Collegiate Groups leading developments
- Development of 3-18 curriculum:
- Cross sectoral development
- Cross sectoral teaching and learning
- Piloting cross sector management and leadership structures
Developments – Nursery/PrimaryNursery/primary developments are centred on:
- Joint planning with nursery and primary staff at early level
- Primary staff developing planning formats for learning, teaching and assessment
- Pilot of NAR materials
- Development of Profiling and Portfolio pro forma
Developments – Junior PhaseJunior Phase developments have included:
- Incorporation of B tC3, BtC4 and BtC5 key points into school Improvement plan
- Key focus within Inset time, collegiate time and department time on learning and teaching issues
- Focus on techniques such as Co-operative Learning and revisiting of Assessment is for Learning strategies
- Development of Learning Rounds
- Development of Interdisciplinary learning moving to a more systematic approach to integrated learning across areas of the curriculum throughout the junior phase
- Specific development of IDL through Sports Comprehensive Programme
- Development of integrated social subjects
- Development of support structures
- Mapping of Experiences and Outcomes across the curricular areas
Developments – Senior PhaseSenior Phase developments have included:
- Incorporation of B tC3, BtC4 and BtC5 key points into school Improvement plan
- Models for Senior Phase proposed and discussed.
- Discussion re number of courses studied (5-7)
- Timetabling models devised up to 2015-16
- Development of partnership with Perth City Schools, Perth College, Business Partners, local Community Learning & Development, North Inch Community Campus Partners including Live Active Leisure to develop skills for life, work and learning
Learning and TeachingThe Learning and Teaching development has included:
- Major focus on Co-Operative Learning and Assessment is for Learning to improve learning and teaching
- Learning Rounds as a model for capacity building
Interdisciplinary LearningDevelopment of IDL has included:
- Gathering evidence from planning of the extensive opportunities being developed for IDL
- Dedicated time allocated on Inset days and collegiate time for planning IDL across PE, HE, DET, Science, Social Subjects, Mod. Langs., English, Maths
- Sports Comprehensive initiative has provided a vehicle to develop IDL in PE, HE, Science and DET
- Development of transition programme focussed on values, leadership and skills
- Focus on literacy across learning across LMG and secondary school
Support for Pupils and Their LearningSignificant time and resources have been applied to the development of Support for Pupils and Their Learning, including:
- Discussion on Inset, SLT meetings, extended leadership team meetings, whole staff meetings to agree support model for 2011-12 and beyond
- Phased approach – 15 minutes per day in 2011-12
- 30 minutes per day 2012 and beyond
- Vertical “house” groups established
- Year 1 – focus on profiling, building a portfolio, study support
- In house training for staff May/June 2011
Assessment, Reporting and ProfilingWork here has included:
- Piloting “profiles/portfolio” from Nursery, Primary and Secondary
- Piloting of NAR materials across Primary and Secondary
- Focus on Assessment, Reporting and moderation in LMG and Secondary
CPD- All priorities on SIP 2011-12–15 inform the focus for Inset time and collegiate time
- Presentations, papers, discussions, feedback all available for staff on GLOW and school server
- Use of ongoing evidence from self-evaluation to identify future priorities
- Development of faculty approach for leadership and management
Engagement/Consultation with the School CommunityIncluded:
All Appendices are contained within the full report.